The East coast of Northern America is subject to its own unique climate systems. History has given an indication of the systems and patterns to expect from this location with its ever-changing climate taken into account. This location is subject to the harsh disasters that come from being situated along the coast and having a front row seat to the Atlantic Ocean.
Unlike the Ring of Fire, the North American plates are not as active, nor do they have such vast activity either. Devastating earthquakes do not reside atop the list but always have the possibility of occurring and wreaking havoc. Hurricanes, however, are a different story. The Atlantic is a hotspot for such natural disasters. Global warming initiates a chain reaction of evaporating water in the Atlantic and fueling the storms that the mainland and islands in that region are subject to. Greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, which are a primary factor of global warming, is shown to have devastating effects and the repercussions are far from just a rise in global temperature which is by itself a great deal. An evident change is each season’s extreme temperature becoming more and more severe with each passing year. Not only do tropical storms occur but also winter storms which in recent decades have been comprised of faster winds and greater snow deposits. These winter storms are also projected to worsen with the progressive alteration of the climate.
This location is subject to sea level rise which is projected to push residents several miles inland with the coming decades. These assumptions are due to the noticeable melting of the polar ice caps caused by global warming. The importance of the ice sheets can’t be overstated for it works impressively in reflecting harmful rays from the sun and is critical for climate regulation. A two to four foot rise in sea level is enough to force the earlier suggested move for residents.
Other threats include potential heat waves and tornados which both benefit from the evident rising global temperature. Past summers in this region have shown consecutive days of severely high ambient temperatures which are in fact heatwaves once that consecutive temperature is above ninety degrees Fahrenheit. In the past 3-4 decades, there has been an increasing trend in high-humidity heat waves, which are characterized by the persistence of extremely high nighttime temperature. Tornados, however, are ever present and are fueled by hot air and cold air interacting with each other in a particularly devastating fashion. Global warming contributes to the supply of the rapidly rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud.
These factors are all becoming more frequent and worse due to climate change. As climate change continues to rapidly alter by way of global warming and other aspects, various regions around the world are more and more subject to these natural disasters.
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